feelings of heart?  Why says the objector, God gave them to me.  But how can God give you what he has not himself?  If you possess more benevolence than God, you could not have received it from him; because on this principal he did not have it in possession to give.  Surely he could not communicate to you, or any other being, what he did not originally possess.  From what source, then, did you derive so much tenderness and love?  There must, certainly, be some being in the universe in whose bosom is rooted as much benevolence and love as you feel, or how could it have been communicated to you from another?  Now, where did you get it?  God gave it to me, says the objector.  This cannot be, because your doctrine proves, that you have more love than the God who made you!  If you insist that he has given it to you, has he not in such case, given you more than he originally possessed?  He has.  If so, endless misery may be true; for on this principle he has none left!

The scriptures teach that “God is love”; and all his works speak the same language—­saying, “the Lord is good, and his mercies endure forever.”  But how good is he?  The doctrine of endless wrath says, he is not as good as you.  You are but a small stream from an infinite ocean of love; and yet this little stream is greater than the ocean from which it issues, and rises far above its fountain head!  Can this be true?  Impossible.  O, do you not perceive how your own feelings, which you daily experience, contradict your creed!  You feel, desire, and pray for the salvation of all men, and if you had the power, all your feelings, prayers and desires would be carried into execution.  And yet your doctrine denies, that God, the fountain, in which all your affections originate and live, will do it;—­and at the same time you say, that you have no love only what he gave you!  What inconsistencies, contradictions and blindness are here!  Man, a small drop, from the benevolent fountain God, is willing to do, what the source from whence he came is unwilling to do!  Then a drop of love, in the human bosom, is more tender and benevolent than an ocean in the God, who placed it there!

We all know, that the fountain must be more extensive than the stream it sends forth—­yea, larger, than all its running streams put together.  This we know to be correct, as well as we know, that the sun enlightens the world.  Let us then collect these little streams into one.  Bring, if you please, into one body, the love and benevolence of men and angels, of cherubim and seraphim—­stretch your thoughts to unnumbered worlds, extract the love from countless bosoms, and condense the whole into one being.  How great, lovely, and adorable, would that creature be!  Then, let the question be put to him—­from whence did you derive all those noble qualities of love, mercy and goodness?  He replies, from my Father God!  Now, we must grant, that God far exceeds him in goodness, because this noble creature is but an emanation from